Scouting the mountain pass

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Another day and another mission for this young kunoichi as she walked slowly down the path of her village, to the designated meeting point. For someone who enjoyed solitude above all else, it seemed crazy that she was going on all these missions with other people. But she was probably not strong enough to go on them alone, since she had been slacking off on jutsu training recently. Kokoro always needed some kind of push to do things, but hated to be pressured. She actually liked the thought of missions though because she was able to finish them quickly and effortlessly most of the time. She hoped that this particular one was going to be the same.

Patrolling the border...she scoffed as she made her way toward the mountain range. She honestly didn't see a reason to have two shinobi on said mission but she guessed for her it was a good thing. If she was any stronger she would insisted on doing something so tedious and time consuming alone. Just the thought of having to interact with probably a stranger for an entire day frightened her tremendously. Kokoro had never been to Sun Spire Mountain Range, but the idea of having a mountain in the middle of a dessert was intriguing to her. She had never known or heard of this place even though she'd lived here for so many years now.

The girl was dressed in her usual minimal clothing, her black trench coat strapped loosely by a black belt over her undergarments. Her blade was strapped tightly underneath the black strap as well, and her weapon pouch was hidden out of sight, strapped to her knee. At least she had the decency to wear a tank top and some shorts, all black over her undergarments this time, seeing as she was traveling to the mountains. She couldn't bear to think if her trench coat was to become unfastened at any point what her partner would say of her choice of dress had she not worn anything to cover. She made her way to the meeting point, where the sea met with the mountains. It was oddly beautiful, she thought, making he way there slowly.

She was never one to appreciate landscapes, since most of what she saw of the village was sand and dessert. But it was a little different here. Kokoro stopped for a moment and took a sip of water from her water bottle, which thanks to her stepfather, she had brought along with her. The last thing she needed to be was dehydrated in the presence of another person. Her eyes would meet that of a figure sitting at the meeting spot, with a blue hakama on. She couldn't quite make out his facial features but she guessed that it was a male from the hakama and cloak and also slightly older than her. She would tread carefully until she reached the spot, simply looking at him as she stopped.

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From just looking at him, she had guessed him to be a rather cold individual, like she was, but when he opened his mouth to speak, she was surprised to find that he was actually a pretty nice person. She hadn't met many nice people in the village, let alone a nice shinobi, so it caught her off guard. Kokoro looked at his blushing face and couldn't help but chuckle a little herself. How long she had not chuckled or smiled, she didn't know. She would wait until he finished with his self-introduction before stating, "Sakuragi Kokoro." she would say and quickly add, "You can call me whatever you want, I don't care." she didn't want to come off as unkind or cold but she was simply stating a fact. Many people, especially older people called her Sakuragi and some others would call her Kokoro. Either way suited her. It was just a name after all.

She would look out at the sea, watching as the waters moved. The man before him seemed not too much of a bother, which she considered herself as lucky since she knew many people who would talk her ear off. Kokoro was rather glad that he was not good with new people, as neither was she. The kunoichi would turn to face him again. "Let's begin then?" she wasn't in a hurry but she was also not for awkward silences. She found them quite uncomfortable and hard to bear. She would wait for him to take the lead since she wasn't sure in which direction they were headed in. It also seemed that he knew these parts better than she did, and was much stronger than her. "It's okay, I'm not good with new people too." she would admitted openly, much to her own surprise.

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"So... Why did you decide to become a kunoichi? If you don't mind me asking..."

A classic question that she had probably answered around a hundred times now since becoming a Genin. Many of the people she knew or met seemed intrigued as to why someone like her would want to be a shinobi. She couldn't really tell them the real reason. It would be a lot of unnecessary explanations, including how Sakuragi Kokoro wasn't her real name. The young girl would think for a moment of an appropriate answer, something that was fitting and that wouldn't give away the true reasons why she was a shinobi. "I want to right and punish people who do wrong."

She wasn't sure if it made sense, to be honest. The girl couldn't possibly tell this complete stranger how she loved the scent of blood and got unusually excited in battle when she cut her opponents, the sheer drive of her continuation to fight on how much blood was shed, from both parties. Instead she gave him the watered down version, which was true to an extent. She hated people who did the wrong things, including missing nin from the villages and she had a secret desire to bring justice onto people who do wrong things through fights. And to that she had to be strong...it all connected...at least in her mind. "What about you?" she was kind of interested at what normal people would say, as she found herself slightly insane.

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Kokoro was admittedly surprised to hear that Arashi had a similar ambition as she did, although hers was far more complicated than what she made it out to be. Her mission in life was to take the head of her birth father for killing her mother and abandoning her. To be honest, she had never killed anyone either, but street fighting as a child and picking enough fights as an academy student had taught her a few things about fighting and basic survival instincts too. The gap between how he looked and his personality was interesting, she noted. It was the first time she had met someone like him. Kokoro was about to answer when she heard Arashi yell. "This way! Run!" He called to her.

In the next moment she saw the boulder headed straight for the two shinobi. She ran in the direction as instructed, her blue eyes looking from left to right. It felt like the boulder, which proved to be two boulders were set to roll by a bunch of bandits. There were five of them, she counted, as they appeared, surrounding the two of them. Two against five huh...she thought to herself, her right hand already clasped tightly on the hilt of her wakizashi. Their intent a mystery, Kokoro couldn't care less why they were there, just that they were no more than an unnecessary interference. They broke into two groups, three surrounding Arashi and two Kokoro. She could see that one of the wakizashi isers and the knife guy were to be her opponents.

"Fools..." she hissed under her breath. Though not skilled in jutsus, she considered herself an above average fighter. Even without jutsu, she was confident that her combat skills were enough against these bandits. Her expression menacing, she ran towards the one holding the knife, her weapon still sheathed. "Do you think that toy is supposed to scare me?" She would ask as she neared the knife wielder. She would attempt to grab his knife wielding arm, her feet pivoting to the right so that she was to his far right. she would grab his arm firmly with her left hand twisting it outward so that the blade would be pointing horizontally outward near her chest. She would attempt to push her body weight to her right hand as she tried to push the blade out of his hand, all the while not forgetting the wakizashi man.

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Kokoro didn't have much luxury to watch Arashi's fight. The kunoichi pushed her knee into the knife man's back, bringing them both to the ground, all the while her hand not letting go of his arm. As he twitched, she moved her hand downward, pushing his arm to twist in a fairly uncomfortable position. He would let out a scream at the sudden pain. He still held the knife in his hand though, a stubborn man. She would force his hand open and take the knife from his hand. In one quick motion she would cut his neck, as if slicing a fish. As the blood gushed out, she'd let go, knife still in her hand. Kokoro got off the man, who was hanging onto his life, barely. Her hand and coat covered in the man's blood, she turned to look at the other man, who was greatly disturbed at how little she felt towards seeing that much blood.

She threw the knife on the ground, her eyes locking onto the other man. She would unsheathe her own wakizashi, the sound of the metal a piercing sound against her sheathe. By now she would have guessed that Arashi was just about finished with the guys on his end. The girl gave her opponent a small but evil smile as she charged towards the man. It was going to be a battle of the swords as they clashed. But being a strong fighter and her height giving her an advantage and soon the kunoichi would have the upper hand. When the two blades were in a deadlock, Kokoro moved her own blade down, the two metals sliding against each other. As her sword slid down, she would close in on the man's hilt. She pushed the chakra in her body to her hands and forced the man's blade to fly out of his hand. The last strike was a simple stab to his abdomen.

She was a little tired as she walked over to Arashi who had finished his opponents off quite cleanly it seemed. Her hands, and coat covered in blood, she would give Arashi a quick nod, sheathing her wakizashi at the same time. "Finished" she'd simply say as she looked back at the two men's bodies. She wasn't sure if she had meant to kill them.

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Kokoro would smile, the answer to his comment that she didn't have much problems with the fight just now. She didn't know whether that was exactly correct, since she usually fought with just improvisation. She knew that there were many shinobi who fought with much more skill than she did. And she respected those that had enough training to use many methods during battle. At the moment she only had her wakizashi and her body to count on. "You were not bad yourself." She would compliment though she hadn't paid as much attention to Arashi's fight as she had intended. She loved studying others when it came to fighting, secretly learning from them.

"That sounds like a good idea." She replied as the two would continue exploring the area. As a first timer in the area, she wouldn't mind exploring, to get her bearings in case she had to come again for another mission. Kokoro felt uncomfortable in her half bloodied coat but wouldn't say anything. She hated getting her clothes dirty. To cover if she did dirty them though, like now, her love for black helped.

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Kokoro only nodded her head, walking alongside Arashi once more. The coast was quite refreshing, a different scenery from what she was used to. She couldn't help but feel a little bad that she had shown her violent and fierce self and was quite grateful that he didn't see the full brunt of it. The girl wasn't usually as ruthless but sometimes especially in battle, she felt the uncontrollable to make her opponents bleed. Her footsteps stopped abruptly, head tilting to her right. There was a presence, she was sure. But she couldn't quite make out exactly where it was coming from. It was close...that was all she knew.."I think we have company..." she whispered to Arashi, knowing that he probably would have picked it up before she did.

From what she guessed, it was the leader of the bandits they had faced off just now. In a few seconds, her suspicions were confirmed as a man of muscular build appeared behind them, with a wakizashi. From what she could tell, he was a skilled swordsman, quite different from what they had been facing just now. He had agility of a ballerina even though he was muscular. She could see that he had another blade around his waist. A double swordsman...she mused.

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Kokoro was caught off guard at just how quickly Arashi reacted, drawing his blade and slashing downwards to their opponent. She was almost in a daze for a good minute before she realized that he had done so to create an opening for her to land an attack. She ran forward, unsheathing her wakizashi and slashed him in his midsection. He was bound to only be able to block either of those attacks, she thought. But she would learn that that was not the case, as the man reached for his second wakizashi. As skilled swordsmen often did, his ability to maintain a good defensive stance was good, first clashing his blade with Arashi's while moving backwards, widening the distance between them so that he had enough room to block her horizontal attack.

His blade pushed along hers, the same way hers had in the previous fight. Kokoro knew that she couldn't possibly defeat this man with pure swordsmanship, watching as the force of his blade made her release her own. While she tried to retrieve her airborne sword, he took the opportunity to make a slash of his own, aiming directly at Kokoro's stomach area. It wss her swift motion, that of a ninja more than a bandit. She felt his sword cut her skin, her eyes widening. As she froze mlmentarily, the bandit turned his attention to Arashi, seeming to know he was the superior opponent. He would try to release the deadlock trying to get Arashi's blade and body to jump backwards. He needed an opening so that he could use both his wakizashi with ease.

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Kokoro looked at the wound in her stomach, slightly dazed still as she watched Arashi fight. The two men were both very skilled in swords, something that she felt she couldn't par with. She watched as the bandit screamed out in pain and anger, as Arashi's attacks hit. That should finish him..she thought to herself as she sheathed her blade, kneeling on one knee. She hadn't been injured before and this was quite a new experience. She watched silently as the blood trickled to the ground, watched as the dark red colour reflected in her eyes. Although painful, she didn't hate it. The young girl would look at her partner and smile a little.

"Thanks for helping back there. Couldn't have done it without you." and she meant it. It had been her first mission with another shinobi, which she considered was a success. Now if only she could move to get out here...she thought to herself. She wondered how long it would take them to get back to the village and prayed that there would be no more bandits in the area before they reached there.

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Kokoro would only smile as Arashi asked her if she was alright. She didn't want to be presumed weak in front of the man, not that it actually really mattered at this point. She held up her hand as though to silence his apologies. "I'm okay. Don't apologize. It was my own fault." and she meant it. Kokoro wasn't one to take defeat lightly, especially at the hands of a bandit. It felt humiliating...but she would take a part of the cloak he offered to her to wrap her wound. "Thank you." she would say a little weakly to him, her smile slightly wider now. The two would make their way to the village, the girl half leaning on him for support.